


Turn Instead to the Dictates of Love (Sushi A Go-Go)

by Duck_Life



Category: X-Factor (Comics), X-Men (Comicverse)
Genre: Child Loss, Exhaustion, Friendship/Love, Gen, Sushi, Team as Family, X-Factor Endgame
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-11
Updated: 2019-10-11
Packaged: 2020-12-07 21:21:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,186
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20982551
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Duck_Life/pseuds/Duck_Life
Summary: X-Factor licks their wounds after giving up Nathan Christopher to Askani.





	Turn Instead to the Dictates of Love (Sushi A Go-Go)

The Inhumans have already dropped them back in Manhattan by the time it occurs to X-Factor that they no longer had a home. Ship— or what remains of Ship— is far away in the future now, unreachable, just like Nathan Christopher. 

They stand in the empty lot of land that Warren purchased what feels like a lifetime ago. They had their first headquarters here, that waterfront building drenched in deceit and Cameron Hodge’s lies. This was the shadow where Ship stood, hulking and strange and unique, against the skyline. 

Now there is nothing but dust and debris. 

Charlotte Jones is the first to speak. “Man, Timmy’s gotta be worried sick,” she says. “Not to mention my mother-in-law.” She double-checks to be sure she still has her gun and her badge. “Warren— I’ll call you, okay?”

Warren’s expression is interesting. Beneath the exhaustion and sorrow they’re all sporting, he looks kind of in awe. “You’re amazing,” he says to Charlotte, wrapping his arms around her. “You didn’t have to do any of… you’re amazing.”

“I try my best,” she says tiredly. They kiss. “I’ll see you later, Warren.” She pulls away and hugs Jean, and she waves goodbye to Hank and Bobby. When she turns to Scott, though, she just fixes him with a level gaze. “It’s all about hope, right?”

Cyclops nods, his jaw tight. “Right.”

“Yeah.” Charlotte waves goodbye again, and then she’s gone, quickly blending into the rest of the crowd moving through the city, people who have never been to the blue area of the moon, or any area of the moon. People who can laugh and talk and live without being weighted down by what has happened today. 

Bobby breaks the stilted silence. “Is anyone else, like,  _ starving _ ?”

Jean looks like she’s about to snap at him, but Hank stops her. “Actually, yes. I could do with some sustenance right about now.” 

Scott runs a hand over his chin, thinks about how he needs to shave, thinks about the look on his son’s face as he handed him over to Askani. He says, “Well, I know a sushi place.” 

* * *

Scott leads them across town to the sushi bar. As they get closer, Jean startles and asks, “Didn’t this use to be… ?”

“Yeah,” Scott confirms. They approach the restaurant formerly known as the Coffee A Go-Go, now a new wave sushi restaurant. The place is filled with mostly college kids, and while they look a little surprised at Hank and Warren’s appearances, no one seems upset. The hostess greets them warmly, and they tell her how many, and Jean starts to ask for a children’s menu automatically and then clamps her mouth shut, looking pale. Scott squeezes her hand. The hostess leads them to a table. 

There are no beat poets and no piping hot cappuccinos, but it’s not like the place lacks character. Huge green plants occupy every corner of the room. Neon lights wink from the ceiling. 

“I’ve never had sushi,” Warren admits, opening up his menu.

“I think caviar counts, Warr,” Jean says.

They pore over their menus and drink their waters, and they don’t talk about the baby, and they don’t talk about the baby, and they don’t talk about the baby. Scott and Jean both order California rolls. Warren gets a salmon roll, Hank orders seaweed salad and sashimi and Bobby chooses some deep-fried monstrosity with smoked salmon and cream cheese. 

Jean strikes up a conversation about the last she heard from Rictor and Boom-Boom over on the New Mutants, and by talking about that they’re all able to avoid talking about anything else for a good long while. Their food comes. They dig in. 

In the process of trying to dip his piece of sushi roll in his cup of soy sauce, Scott drops it. Soy sauce splashes on the surfaces of the table. “I can’t help thinking what choice Madelyne would have made,” he says quietly.

Bobby pipes up, “You know what she would have done, she would have sacrificed Chris to a fucking demon so—” 

“ _ Bobby _ .” Jean surges across the table and grabs both of his hands, holding them in a vice-like grip, her eyes livid. 

“It’s fine,” Scott says. He rescues his piece of sushi from drowning in soy sauce and pops it in his mouth. He chews. He swallows. “It’s fine.” 

“Scotty—” Hank starts.

“My son is gone,” Scott says. “Forever. Forever, he’s gone, and I’m probably never going to know whether I made the right choice or not, but he’s gone now and he isn’t coming back. And… and somehow, I thought it would be  _ better _ this time because when he disappeared in Anchorage I had no idea what happened and this time I actually  _ know _ . Right? But when it really comes down to it I don’t actually know a damn thing. I don’t know if he survived— or, or  _ will _ survive. I don’t know what his life will be like. If he’ll even have one. I don’t know a damn thing, all I know is that I miss him. And that I’m hungry. And that… that in some weird messed-up way, we won this round. Apocalypse won but we won, too, so.” 

Scott eats another piece of his sushi roll and Warren stares down at his hands. 

Their plates grow cleaner and cleaner, and then finally they can’t just keep sitting there in haunted silence anymore. The waitress looks like she wants to clear the table. 

“While I hate to bring this up,” Hank says, “where are we sleeping tonight?”

“Actually, I’ve been thinking about that,” says Warren, “and I have an idea.”

“Great.” Bobby drops his chopsticks on the table. “We’ll just crawl up in our nests and tuck our heads under our wings, right?”

Warren gives him a withering stare. “I have a place,” he tells Scott and Jean. “In Colorado. We can… we can stay there. Until we think of something better.” 

“Oh, right, the house,” Bobby says. “It’s got a pool. You guys’ll love it.”

“That sounds like a good idea,” Scott says. He looks like he might just fall asleep right here at the table. 

“I can have a jet ready to take us in an hour,” Warren says, pushing his seat out from the table. “I’ll go make a call.” He leaves his credit card on the table, and Jean and Hank both look at each other and shrug. They’re all too tired to argue right now. Warren wants to pay for dinner? Fine. Warren wants to book a private jet for them? Fine. 

Jean has a hand on Scott’s arm as they’re leaving the restaurant. “We should reach out to Rachel,” she says. “Not tonight, God, not tonight. But sometime soon, I think.”

Scott nods. “I think that’s a good idea.” 

“Alright.” 

They’re just waiting on the car to come and take them to the airport. Jean holds Scott’s hand. Bobby picks a fight with Hank about the right way to pronounce “tempura.” Warren stands like a sentry between his friends and the traffic and the pedestrians, and all around them, the city hums. 


End file.
